Jamie Oliver is being sued by an American beef processing worker laid off
after the celebrity chef publicised the use of "pink slime" in
school lunches and fast food.

Bruce Smith was one of 750 employees who lost their jobs earlier this year at Beef Products Incorporated (BPI), following a flood of negative reports about the controversial product.

Mr Smith, 58, who was the company's director of Environmental, Health and Safety, is also suing ABC News, its high profile anchor Diane Sawyer, and the food blogger Bettina Siegel.

He is accusing them of "dissemination of untrue facts and misinformation" about Lean Finely Textured Beef (LFTB,) the substance widely referred to as "pink slime".

The product is created by heating beef scraps and running them through a centrifuge to separate out fat, then treating it with ammonium hydroxide.

Several fast food companies, including McDonald's, and major supermarket chains, stopped using it after the controversy. Only three states - Nebraska, South Dakota and Iowa - still use it in school lunches.

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The complaint, filed in Nebraska, said: "Defendant Oliver proceeded to use his celebrity chef media notoriety to place pressure on American fast food company McDonald's, and others, to immediately stop using LFTB ground beef in its retail menu food products."

Mr Smith, who has written a book called "Pink Slime Ate My Job," said BPI and its employees were "unfairly and unnecessarily maligned and accused of producing a food product that did not exist, a product that critics unfairly labeled 'pink slime.'"

He said he only wants $70,000 compensation and his main motivation was to make celebrities come to Nebraska.

Mr Smith said: "I want those responsible for the 'pink slime' smear campaign to appear here in Dakota County, Nebraska, and to face those who lost their jobs first hand."

He claimed: "Consumer fears and concerns were falsely hyped and manipulated by the traditional and social media, celebrities, politicians and others."

Oliver first brought attention to the subject in an April 2011 episode of his show "Food Revolution," in which he spun beef scraps in a washing machine and doused them with ammonium hydroxide. He referred to the finished product as "pink slime," a term which had been in use for several years.

At the time, the British celebrity chef said: "Everything about this process to me is about no respect for food, or people, or children."

Siegel, the blogger, later gathered 250,000 signatures in a petition to ban LFTB in schools, and ABC News broadcast a series of stories.